gallon ziploc bag activities for preschoolers

The following rockstar guest post is written by Barb of A Life in Balance. Barb has a ton of awesome ideas, and you should totally check out her blog.

Gallon bag activities.

Plastic bag activities. Ziploc or Ziplock or Glad or store brand, it doesn’t matter. All you need is a large-sized plastic bag with a tight seal to totally rock these activities. Your preschooler will totally heart you. We promise.

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Gallon Ziplock Bag Activities for Preschoolers, by Barb Hoyer.

One of my favorite parts of homeschooling was coming up with activities in a bag to keep my young ones occupied while I was working with my oldest son.

Since I had 2 and then 3 little ones to manage while homeschooling, I kept a wide variety of Bag Activities on hand, and we rotated through them to keep the kids interested.

Some of these ideas are perfect for car trips or to bring along to a restaurant when you go out for a meal. I’ve also brought a few to the sports field like the bubble solution and notebook with stickers.

At the preschool level, the emphasis is on developing fine motor skills during play. Many preschoolers like my youngest son are not ready for heavy academics, however, they still need to learn how to handle a pencil, cut with scissors, and learn the basics of color and shapes.

The beauty of the gallon ziplock bag is that many creative play-based learning activities can fit into them for easy access and storage. Use plastic shoe boxes to organize the activities by type, days of the week, or place (car, restaurant, sports field).

Here are some ideas:

Shaving cream in a closed bag used for drawing pictures and shapes

Shoelaces or straws and large beads for stringing and cards with patterns for imitatingPaper towel tube and car to run through it

Tongs, 2 bowls, and stuff to pick up with tongs; same activity can be done with tweezers

Texture cards – felt, fake fur, leather, sandpaper

Magnifying glass with a few items for examining – rock, leaf, bark, patterned fabric

Nuts and Bolts

Finger puppets

Shape cards for matching

Pom poms for sorting

Make Your Own Mobile kit – seasonal, interests

I-Spy soda bottle – shoe, key, dime, marble, lego brick, paper clip, birdseed, photos of items for searching

Blank book and stickers or roll of paper with shapes drawn on it for filling with stickers

Egg carton with items for sorting – nuts, bolts, beans, pasta, paper clips, buttons

Alphabet book – small booklet made of papers stapled together with a glue stick and scissors

Paper and scissors

Bubble solution and bubble blowing wands

Shape and object cards for matching together or matching to the environment

Playdough

Where to Buy Supplies:

Thrift stores and garage sales – Fabric for cutting up, seasonal items like ornaments, small plastic kitchenware, toy figures
Ikea – finger puppets, child-sized plastic dishes, utensils, cups and kitchen items
Dollar Store – Craft supplies, gallon freezer bags, kitchen items, paper goods, stickers, seasonal items, birthday treat bag items
Dollar bin at craft stores and Target – small notebooks, crayons, markers, stickers
Hardware store – nuts and bolts, small tools, measuring tape, chain

Thank you, Barb! You have fabulous ideas!!

Barb is a mom of 5 kids who spends her day keeping track of socks, stuffed animals, library books, and a 5 year old when she isn’t writing about all the frugality, gardening, cooking, and reading she manages to fit in between the chaotic moments. She can be found at A Life in Balance.

Looking for more ways to teach toddlers and preschoolers? Stop by and follow these great educational Pinterest boards:

Preschool Learning | A Life in Balance
Early Elementary Education | A Life in Balance
Cooking with Kids | A Life in Balance
we teach: Montessori / teach mama
we teach: toddlers / teach mama
cool & creative indoor fun | teachmama

This post is part of our new Rockstar Sunday posts. Each week, I will highlight one ‘rockstar’ in the parenting and education field. These posts? Seriously awesome.

Have something you’d like to share that in some way relates to fun learning, school, technology, education, or parenting? For a short time we’ll be accepting Rockstar Sunday guest posts.

The response to our Rockstar Sunday feature has been overwhelming. I am in awe of the ideas, submissions, and shares!

Having been in the blogging space for 5+ years, we know for sure that our readers are always up for fresh and fun ideas on literacy, math, technology, parenting, and learning in the every day. They love crafts, hands-on teaching ideas, printables, cooking with kids, and anything that makes their job as parents easier, better, and more fun.

You don’t have to have a blog of your own–just cool ideas to share! We look forward to hearing from you!

other posts in the series: